The operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have uncovered an expansive warehouse stocked with a large consignment of codeine-based syrup at Comfort Oboh area of Kirikiri in Lagos State.

Four persons connected with the importation and distribution of opioid were arrested during an intelligence-led raid on the facility by the NDLEA officers.

This was disclosed in a statement issued by the spokesperson for the anti-drug agency, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday, June 16, 2024.

The suspects arrested included Kingsley Amanambu Obumneke, 38; Emeka Emmanuel, 48; Bornaventure Ugochukwu, 59; and Martin Dike, 56.

Babafemi said 82,000 bottles of the opioid worth more than N600 million in street value, Toyota Tacuma truck, and two buses used for distributing the substance were recovered from the premises on Monday, June 10, when anti-narcotic officers conducted the operation in Lagos.

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He noted that the NDLEA operatives, on Monday, June 10, seized 390kg of cannabis and arrested the trio of Muhammad Sani, Nura Mohammad, and Samaila Rabe during an early morning raid in the Ibese area of Ogun State.

He disclosed that the anti-narcotic officers, on Wednesday, June 12, burst a skuchies making factory in the Sabo area of Shagamu, Ogun State, and arrested seven suspects.

The arrested suspects were Kareem Jamiu, Oriyimi Ayo, Bamidele Wasiu, Rasheed Olarewanju, Ramota Lawal, Amudalat Olarewanju, and Adeniyi Omotosho.

Babafemi listed the exhibits recovered from the suspects to include 387 litres of skuchies; 70 litres of industrial codeine; 25kg cannabis and different quantities of tramadol, rophynol, diazepam, as well as various equipment used in the production of the new psychoactive substance.

The NDLEA spokesman added that a 24-year-old suspect, Muhammed Musa, was arrested with 33kg cannabis at Bode-Saadu, Jebba, in Kwara State, while Shokuro Adeola, 59, was nabbed with 11.5kg of same substance along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway in Oyo State.

The Star